At the end of World War II, as part of a refugee group, Freddy encountered American troops in Bohemia. Due to his fluent English, the 14-year-old succeeded in pretending to be of American nationality. He was subsequently sent to the US in May 1945 with a military transport. On Ellis Island, he learned that his father had already died in 1943 in a car accident. The boy was immediately sent back to Europe and, before returning to his mother in Vienna, was stranded for a whole year in Antwerp in a children’s home, where he learned to speak French and Dutch.

However, having left the landlocked country of Austria in favor of adventurous journeys through Southern Europe and Northern Africa, he eventually headed for Germany. He was “discovered” in St. Pauli, Hamburg, and was offered his first recording contract in 1954. He represented Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland, with the atypical song, “So geht das jede Nacht”, about an unfaithful girlfriend who dates many men. He did not win, and the full results of the contest were never released so his placement is not known. Most of his other songs are about Hamburg, the endless sea and the solitary life in faraway lands. His first hit record was “Heimweh” (“Homesickness”, a.k.a. “Brennend heisser Wüstensand”, “Dort wo die Blumen blüh’n” and “Schön war die Zeit”, (1956), a German version of Dean Martin’s “Memories Are Made of This”. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

His popularity waned in the 1970s, but Quinn continued performing. “Junge, komm bald wieder” was sung by Alpay on 7 Dilde Alpay (Turkish for “Alpay in Seven Languages”) album, which was released in 1973.